The New York Times Is Planning to Experiment With Blockchain Publishing

UPDATE (March 13, 2019, 16:10 UTC): This article has been updated to note that the NYT took down its job posting after publication. A screenshot of the posting has been added to the article.

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The New York Times, the second-largest newspaper in the U.S. by circulation and a storied institution in American journalism, is getting ready to experiment with blockchain technology for publishing.

According to a job posting that appeared on the Times’ website Wednesday, the media organization is looking for someone to help “design a blockchain-based proof of concept for news publishers.”

To start the project, NYT is looking for a “forward-looking leader” who would be working on the proof-of-concept’s outline for 12 months within the company’s research and development division, according to the post, which was removed after this article was published.

The new hire “will codify the vision for the research project and share that vision with potential stakeholders at other media organizations” and “help brand and create a public identity and assets for the project.”

Another goal will be to form a pool of the project’s stakeholders and find advisors from news organizations, academia and social media companies.

Screen shot of the New York Times job posting.

Skill set

The candidate should have previous experience innovating in media organizations and “leading a combination of engineers, designers, journalists” for more than eight years, according to the NYT job posting. Strong skills in communication, writing and presentation, partnerships and collaborations are necessary.

The new blockchain leader should also have an “established track record in real-world application of new technologies” and “a mixed skill set with some experience in at least three of: journalism, product, design, software development, hardware engineering, user research.”

No less important, the job requires “a real passion for The New York Times’s mission.”

The NYT project wouldn’t be the first blockchain-media experiment. The most prominent of these is Civil, a token-driven startup backed by the ethereum development studio ConsenSys.

In its editorial operations, the New York Times has been covering the blockchain and cryptocurrency agenda for several years now, including the special project “Demystifying the Blockchain” last June. The newspaper’s lead reporter in blockchain and crypto, Nathaniel Popper, is also the author of the bestseller “Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money.”

The New York Times didn’t respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment by press time.